New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his administration is actively seeking whether it has a legal avenue to order the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City for the United Nations General Assembly in September.
while talking to The New York Times In an interview published on Saturday, July 18, Mamdani reiterated his position that Netanyahu is a “war criminal” who “belongs in The Hague.”
He referred to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant issued against Netanyahu in November 2024 over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza.
The mayor also mentioned that he is in “active conversation” with the city’s Law Department to explore whether he can order the New York Police Department to detain a foreign leader.
He said, “Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we’ll do, but we won’t write our own laws for that purpose.”
The arrest will undoubtedly face significant legal hurdles, as the United States does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction and President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the court in February 2025.
Previously, New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated that the mayor does not have the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, who is running for re-election, ignored Mamdani’s comments on air this week, saying the mayor was condemning “Israel, the only democracy that stands alongside the United States in defending its values.”
Mamdani, a fierce opponent of Israel’s military action against Gaza, has criticized the Hamas attack carried out in October 2023 that sparked the war.
